Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France

High up in the mountains of the southern Massif Central in France lie tiny, remote villages united by a long and particular history. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and its parishes saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, Freemasons, communists, and, above all, Jews, many of them orphans whose parents had been deported to concentration camps.

Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto

In 1942 one young social worker, Irena Sendler, was granted access to the Warsaw Ghetto as a public health specialist. While she was there, she began to understand the fate that awaited the Jewish families who were unable to leave. Soon she reached out to the trapped families, going from door to door and asking them to trust her with their young children. She started smuggling children out of the walled district, convincing her friends and neighbors to hide them.

Broken Angels

Imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto, Elsi discovers her mother's desperate attempt to end her pregnancy and comes face-to-face with the impossibility of their situation. Risking her own life, Elsi joins a resistance group to sabotage the regime. Blonde, blue-eyed Matilda is wrenched from her family in Romania and taken to Germany, where her captors attempt to mold her into the perfect Aryan child. Spirited and brave, she must inspire hope in the other stolen children to make her dreams of escape a reality.

The English German Girl

In 1930s Berlin, choked by the tightening of Hitler's fist, the Klein family are gradually losing everything that is precious to them. Their 15-year-old daughter, Rosa, slips out of Germany on a Kindertransport train to begin a new life in England. Charged with the task of securing a safe passage for her family, she vows that she will not rest until they are safe. But as war breaks out and she loses contact with her parents, Rosa finds herself wondering if there are some vows that can't be kept....

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline's world is forever changed when Hitler's army invades Poland in September 1939 - and then sets its sights on France. An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement.

Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation

Paris in the 1940s was a place of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation, and secrets. During the occupation, the swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower and danger lurked on every corner. While Parisian men were either fighting at the front or captured and forced to work in German factories, the women of Paris were left behind, where they would come face-to-face with the German conquerors on a daily basis, as waitresses, shop assistants, or wives and mothers increasingly desperate to find food to feed their families as hunger became part of everyday life.

Underground in Berlin: A Young Woman's Extraordinary Tale of Survival in the Heart of Nazi Germany

In 1941, Marie Jalowicz Simon, a 19-year-old Berliner, made an extraordinary decision. All around her, Jews were being rounded up for deportation, forced labor, and extermination. Marie took off her yellow star, turned her back on the Jewish community, and vanished into the city. In the years that followed, Marie lived under an assumed identity, forced to accept shelter wherever she found it.

Pastel Orphans

In 1930s Berlin, young Henrik, the son of a Jewish father and Aryan mother, watches the world around him crumbling: people are rioting in the streets, a strange yellow star begins appearing in shop windows, and friends are forced to move - or they simply disappear.

The Girl from Krakow: A Novel

It's 1935. Rita Feuerstahl comes to the university in Krakow intent on enjoying her freedom. But life has other things in store - marriage, a love affair, a child, all in the shadows of the oncoming war. When the war arrives, Rita is armed with a secret so enormous that it could cost the Allies everything, even as it gives her the will to live. She must find a way both to keep her secret and to survive amid the chaos of Europe at war.

The Beast's Garden

Ava fell in love the night the Nazis first showed their true nature to the world. A retelling of the Grimms' Beauty and the Beast, set in Nazi Germany. It's August 1939 in Germany, and Ava's world is in turmoil. To save her father, she must marry a young Nazi officer, Leo von Löwenstein, who works for Hitler's spy chief in Berlin. However, she hates and fears the brutal Nazi regime and finds herself compelled to stand against it.

The Red Rooster

Of all the desperate women in German-occupied Paris, Gabriela Reyes is the least likely to scratch out her survival as a whore for a Gestapo agent. After fascists murdered her mother and brother and tortured her father in an insane asylum, she hates the Germans as much as she fears them. But when she discovers the man responsible for destroying her family, she decides to become his mistress to try to free her father and avenge her family.

Hitler's Forgotten Children: A True Story of the Lebensborn Program and One Woman's Search for Her Real Identity

In the summer of 1942, parents across Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia were required to submit their children to medical checks designed to assess racial purity. One such child, Erika Matko, was nine months old when Nazi doctors declared her fit to be a "Child of Hitler". Taken to Germany and placed with politically vetted foster parents, Erika was renamed Ingrid von Oelhafen. Many years later, Ingrid began to uncover the truth of her identity.

The German Girl: A Novel

Before everything changed, young Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life. But now, in 1939, the streets of Berlin are draped with red, white, and black flags; her family's fine possessions are hauled away; and they are no longer welcome in the places that once felt like home. Hannah and her best friend, Leo Martin, make a pact: Whatever the future has in store for them, they'll meet it together.

The Milliner's Secret

June 1940. As Paris, the City of Light, approaches its darkest hour, a young woman treads the line between survival and collaboration. Londoner Cora Masson has reinvented herself as Coralie de Lirac, using a false claim to aristocratic birth to launch herself as a fashionable milliner. When the Nazis invade, the influence of a high-ranking lover protects her business. But the cruel demands of war - and of love - cannot be kept at bay forever.

Karolina's Twins: A Novel

From Ronald H. Balson, author of the international best seller Once We Were Brothers, comes a saga inspired by true events of a Holocaust survivor's quest to fulfill a promise, return to Poland, and find two sisters lost during World War II.

Isaac's Army: A Story of Courage and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland

Starting as early as 1939, disparate Jewish underground movements coalesced around the shared goal of liberating Poland from Nazi occupation. For the next six years, separately and in concert, they waged a heroic war of resistance against Hitler's war machine that culminated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In Isaac's Army, Matthew Brzezinski delivers the first-ever comprehensive narrative account of that struggle, following a group of dedicated young Jews - some barely out of their teens - whose individual acts of defiance helped rewrite the ending of World War II.

Survival in the Shadows: Seven Jews Hidden in Hitler's Berlin

The remarkable true story of two families that survived against all odds in the heart of the Nazi capital. Survival in the Shadows rivetingly chronicles the incredible survival of seven German Jews in Berlin through the final and most deadly years of the Holocaust.

Winter Journey

Halina Shore is a Polish born forensic dentist living in Australia. When she travels to Poland to take part in the investigation of a war crime, she finds herself at the center of a bitter struggle in a community that has been divided by a grim legacy. As the investigation proceeds, her professional assignment becomes a confronting personal odyssey as the truth about her own past begins to emerge.

Sister of Mine: A Novel

When two Union soldiers stumble onto a plantation in northern Georgia on a warm May day in 1864, the last thing they expect is to see the Union flag flying high - or to be greeted by a group of freed slaves and their Jewish mistress. Little do they know that this place has an unusual history. Twelve years prior, Adelaide Mannheim - daughter of Mordecai, the only Jewish planter in the county - was given her own maid, a young slave named Rachel. The two became friends, and soon they discovered a secret.

Gone to Soldiers

Epic in scope, Marge Piercy's sweeping novel encompasses the wide range of people and places marked by the Second World War. Each of her 10 narrators has a unique and compelling story that powerfully depicts his or her personality, desires, and fears. Special attention is given to the women of the war effort, like Bernice, who rebels against her domineering father to become a fighter pilot, and Naomi, a Parisian Jew sent to live with relatives in Detroit, whose twin sister, Jacqueline - still in France - joins the resistance against Nazi rule.

Secrets of a Charmed Life

Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.

Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris

The leafy Avenue de Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris' hotbed of daring spies, murderous secret police, amoral informers, and Vichy collaborators. So when American physician Sumner Jackson, who lived with his wife and young son, Phillip, at Number 11, found himself drawn into the Liberation network of the French resistance, he knew the stakes were impossibly high.

Girl in the Blue Coat

Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.

Publisher's Summary

They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives - a singer at the Paris Opera, a midwife, a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, printed subversive newspapers, hid resisters, spirited Jews to safety, transported weapons, and conveyed clandestine messages. The youngest was a schoolgirl of 15 who scrawled “V” for victory on the walls of her lycée; the eldest, a farmer’s wife in her sixties who harbored escaped Allied airmen. Strangers to one another, hailing from villages and cities from across France, these brave women were united in hatred and defiance of their Nazi occupiers.

Eventually the Gestapo hunted down 230 of these women and imprisoned them in a fort outside Paris. Separated from home and loved ones, these disparate individuals turned to one another, their common experience conquering divisions of age, education, profession, and class as they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie. In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination: Auschwitz. Only 49 would return to France.

A Train in Winter draws on interviews with these women and their families; German, French, and Polish archives; and World War II resistance organization documents to uncover a dark chapter of history that offers an inspiring portrait of ordinary people, of bravery and survival, and of the remarkable, enduring power of female friendship.

What the Critics Say

“By turns heartbreaking and inspiring.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Compelling and moving.…The literature of wartime France and the Holocaust is by now so vast as to confound the imagination, but when a book as good as this comes along, we are reminded that there is always room for something new…A necessary book.” (Washington Post)

What made the experience of listening to A Train in Winter the most enjoyable?

Enjoyable? Maybe not. But a hard look into our history and real life is inescapable in this book. If you're looking for a light and entertaining experience, this isn't it. But if you want to look into a period of our history that is unbelievable, this IS it. If you want to be drawn into the experience of a group of beautiful women who loved and supported each other through absolutely unimaginable circumstances, this IS it. We just have no idea. If you want to know what true love (not romantic love) is all about, this is your book.

Hang in there. Initially, I thought I would never get used to the narrator's voice, but I did. And the first part of the book is tedious--building the characters and giving the history. When you get further into the book, you absolutely won't want to put it down because those women have become your friends.

This book , which is based on authentic documents, diaries, and accounts of World War II, is the retelling of events that are not widely known. It is the story of a group of women and their survival through commitment to cause and their loyalty to one another. The historical sources used to recount the stories are dense, so this is not light reading. The women's confinement at Buckenwald Prison is recounted in excruciating detail, so much so that I skipped through a chapter or two. The ways in which their traumas affected their lives after the war were poignantly presented also. The voices of these heroic women will be with me for the rest of my life. The narrator did a fine job with this historical material, but still sensitively conveyed the emotions found in diary entries. The story was well told.

Not starting off with endless, boring details about too many characters in the beginning. Too many characters with similar sounding names is hard to keep track of and frankly, I didn't care that much about their detailed back stories. I just wanted to know how they survived the concentration camp experience. It took foreeeeeeeever to get there.

Once there, it was riveting. Really brought home the importance of community and friendships in survival. They couldn't have done it alone without the support of each other. And even then.....not all made it through.

What was most disappointing about Caroline Moorehead’s story?

The boring beginning. Took forever to get to the meat of the story.

Would you be willing to try another one of Wanda McCaddon’s performances?

Put it into first person of each character so the listener can picture her and know her as a person, not just a victim. Use dialogue instead of narrative. As graphic as the descriptions were listening to them over and over was boring.

Has A Train in Winter turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Wanda McCaddon?

Probably not unless it was a novel and she could play characters, not just describe them.

Was A Train in Winter worth the listening time?

No. I found myself waiting for dialogue.

Any additional comments?

This book, while well written, is told exclusively in narrative form. There is no dialogue among the major characters and therefore listening to the narration gets tedious and I could not identify with the women in any way except by name alone. Also, the story is not for the faint of heart. I found myself turning it off several times upon hearing about victims, including children, being burned alive or dismembered, poisoned, or starved to death. I know these things have occurred and people should be made aware of these acts but not over and over and over in the same story. I have read many books of all genres about the atrocities of the Nazi soldiers and officers alike, but none were as graphic and disturbing as this one.

I was interested in the women as a group, but found the listing of the all by name boring.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I finished the book, and found I had learnt a few things that deepened my understanding of the war and what it was like to be a victim and then a survivor of a Nazi camp. One thing that struck me was how filthy the camps were, and how the woman were given clothing that was already covered in blood and excrement.Another thing I had not considered before was what it was like for camp survivors when they returned to France; and how little sympathy they received for their suffering.So I am very glad I listened to this book.

This is a very good book! It is a scholarly work, well researched and well written. I find the narration to be top drawer with beautiful French pronunciation, very good German. I would not discourage younger people from listening. All this bad stuff really happened. It could happen again. My mother was living in Los Angeles and expecting me when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. She had already lost one baby. There was fear the Japanese would come on over and bomb the Mainland. Eggs and butter and gasoline were rationed when I was little. I was a "war baby." I didn't have rubber pants because rubber went for the war effort. . . . Part of my legacy is a set of recipe cards written in German from when my dad quit high school and got on a ship to sow some wild oats. He worked in the galley of course. His ship was in and out of Hamburg. He even had a Schatzie who continued to write to him even after he had married my mother! . . . I took French in high school and German in junior college. At age 20 I took a student tour which included a visit to Dachau before it was prettied up. I was chastened by the experience and told myself nobody must ever get that much power ever again. So, I come from that time. I was stationed in Germany and later Spain. American military people take their religious retreats at the General Walker Hotel on the site of Hitler's Platterhof Hotel down in Bavaria -- gorgeous yodel country! I have met and loved at least two people who carried numbers on their arms -- Hitler's bleeping bar code! Shocking! And both of them flirted with me! Oh, God bless!

I could not find the friendship of the women -- definitely an upper -- balancing out all the arrogance and shocking unfair treatment perpetrated not only by the Germans but by the many French who cooperated! That was an eye-opener. When the women got on the train and the urine buckets began to overflow but then froze, something snapped for me.

Once again Audible has let the listener down by not making available the pictures, charts and maps that came with the print book. No thanks, Audible! Seems like there should be a way.

But after all the WWII books, fiction and non-fiction, I've read, I expect a new book about the camps and the war to bring something new to the table. It didn't. Re-reading Sophie's Choice is so much more rewarding.

Intriguing, realistic novel by this talented writer addresses an important historical topic The narrators are skilled as well, and complement the integrity and power of the book. I listened to it twice in one week